April 2000 Freezing without touching zero

Freezing without touching zero - Aqua-Lung Glacia Much bigger than my head! - Bowstone Diver's Flag Look at that badge, then check out the price - DUI TLS 350SE Stylish even when out of your suit -Mares swimwear

John Bantin has been a full-time professional diving writer and underwater photographer since 1990. He makes around 300 dives each year testing diving equipment.

Freezing without touching zero
Arctic, Blizzard, Sub-Zero, Extreme - these are all names of regulators that have been designed for use in cold water. It's a pity that they all evoke images of Shackleton and Scott, because, when dealing with high-pressure air, much higher water temperatures than those found in snowy conditions can lead to regulator freezing problems.
As much as 5° above zero can precipitate an unstoppable free-flow, and these water temperatures are commonly encountered at inland dive sites, even in summer.
Then again, if a manufacturer called his prized coldwater regulator the "Bit Chilly", it probably wouldn't sell so well.
The latest offering from Aqua-Lung is called the Glacia. It has the diaphragm-type Cousteau D first stage (reminiscent of the Supra), with an environmentally dry-sealed coldwater kit attached. It's a bit of a brute, but Supra-equipped regulators have always done well in our regulator comparison tests.
It has four medium pressure and two high pressure ports. One of the mp ports is over-sized to take a wide-bore hose to the second stage. This is a plastic unit with an all-encompassing softer plastic shroud over the front which covers the front diaphragm and purge control.
There are heat exchangers on both the air-supply side and the mechanism side of the second-stage.
The working parts are kept well away from the air flow and coated with non-stick PTFE.
I am not a great fan of extra knobs when they are not really needed and I'm glad to say this regulator has none. There is simply a flow-vane control which can be used to discourage free-flow when making the great pressure change between the air and initial immersion. It is marked "plus" and "minus" and is easily operated with a gloved hand.
Controversially, I was never a great fan of the Comfobite mouthpiece but, with the Glacia, Aqua-Lung has achieved two things. It has added an extra part which goes against the outside of the lips to keep them warm, and I found that this made the Comfobite a thousand times more secure in my mouth.
Instead of getting the feeling that the whole thing was pivoting on my front teeth, this attention has transformed this item into the best mouthpiece I have tried to date. Take my tip, Mr Aqua-Lung - put the extra bit on all your Comfobite mouthpieces.
It is very difficult to make an objective assessment of whether a regulator is likely to freeze. It is as much to do with the quality of your exhalations as with the water temperature and how pure the water is. I therefore avoid trying to make any judgement. However, Aqua-Lung certainly has done its best to assure reliable operation of a plastic second stage design.
I can tell you that it breathed very easily and I went so far as to dive to beyond 30m with the scuba cylinder valve cracked open only a fraction (don't try this at home!). My pressure gauge varied alarmingly as I inhaled but the actual effort of breathing remained the same.
I am not sure what scientific significance this has, but it impressed my dive buddies, especially as it was some way into the dive before I asked one of them to turn my tank on properly!
I recommend every diver who plans to dive in fresh water, summer or winter, to use a coldwater spec regulator, even if the water temperature is no more than chilly. The Glacia is one to consider.
The Glacia with Cousteau D first stage costs £230

Aqua-Lung UK 0116 212 4200

PLUS	MINUS
+ Coldwater spec + Great mouthpiece	- First-stage a bit of a brute

Much bigger than my head!

Be seen or be lost. That is the rule for divers waiting to be picked up at the surface.
The sea is a big place and a diver's head is very small. It is easily made invisible if there is the smallest disturbance to the surface.
I learned long ago that a tall safety sausage or a flag was an essential item of equipment. The problem with the safety sausage is that it usually requires two hands to deploy it, and underwater photographers like me rarely have two hands free. A flag needs only one.
The Bowstone diver's flag comes attached to a mast that folds in sections, so that is easily stowed under some elastic cords sprung round the aqualung cylinder. Once unfolded it is 1.8m tall. The flag measures about 55cm square and comes in day-glo yellow. Following the recent HSE report (Can Anybody See Me?, January), our own tests in the middle of the Pacific have shown us that this is indeed the most readily noticeable of colours.
The Bowstone Diver's Flag is essential for the serious diver. It costs £18.

Bowstone Diving Products 0161 442 0272

PLUS	MINUS
+ Most noticeable colour + One-handed operation + Folds for ready portability + Low-cost safety	- None

Look at that badge, then check out the price
I like Californian-made DUI suits very much. They are tough and they keep the water out, but they are, it must be said, sold at a premium price.
The DUI TLS 350SE is a lightweight product which sells at a more lightweight price. It is what DUI calls its entry-level suit.
As such, it does not have the characteristic diagonal front zip, the braces, the over-long torso allowing for a tuck, and the close fit of, say, an FLX 50/50. Instead it is much more baggy, with a conventional cross-shoulder zip. The TLS 350SE is attempting to take on far more economical home-grown drysuits in the UK market.
It is suitable for diving in marginal conditions, such as the Red Sea in winter or the west coast Pacific, when a semi-dry is warm enough in the water but there is an uncomfortable chill when you get out. I used it with a lightweight undersuit. It would be just as good with a heavier undergarment for those who don't want the features of a heavy-duty suit, but it is clearly intended more for the occasional drysuit diver than the dedicated wrecker.
I like a drysuit which does just that - keeps me dry. My long, sinewy wrists often prove problematical in conjunction with the short parallel wrist seals often encountered on cheap suits. The DUI suits come with long latex conical seals which can be trimmed for a perfect fit and make for acres of contact area with the skin at both wrists and neck.
The TLS 350SE is made of trilaminate material which is a sandwich of butyl rubber faced on either side by nylon. I always think it's funny that something which has two laminates is called a trilaminate but, then, all the trilaminates are the same. I never think of a cheese sandwich as a triple decker!
The TLS 350SE has double-layered material at the knees and fixed rubber boots. There are no soft sock ends, as with those other DUI suits which allow you to use DUI Rock Boots. An elastic cord within the waist (adjusted on the inside) gives it a slightly fitted appearance.
Air is fed in by way of a rotating DUI valve which looks remarkably like the Apeks product. The auto-dump is mounted at the shoulder, and again it bears a striking similarity to an Apeks auto-dump.
The TLS350SE is available only in stock sizes, which might be a problem. Although the suit sent to me by SDS in Sheffield (one of three distributors of DUI products in the UK) fitted me perfectly, unfortunately the boots were too small. I heroically used it for the minimum number of dives but, alas, the pressure on my toes meant that I had to abandon the trial sooner than I would have liked.
In a way, with the TLS 350SE, DUI has dispensed with all the unique reasons for buying one of its suits. However, of all the lightweight suits available, this is one of the better- made. All the seams are double-stitched before being well immersed in glue.
If you are lucky enough to find one that fits you, it could be a good choice.
It costs £460

SDS Watersports 0114 248 8688

PLUS	MINUS
+ One of the better- made lightweight drysuits + Bears a DUI badge	- No made-to- measure service will limit its appeal - Has few of the features that made DUI famous

STYLISH EVEN WHEN OUT OF YOUR SUIT
What do you wear under your wetsuit? "Nothing at all" is probably a reasonable answer, but to spare the blushes of those fellow-divers with whom you are on less than intimate terms when getting kitted up, you probably wear a swimsuit.
Some of these garments can tend to leave you with more unsightly bulges than you can provide on your own - probably less of a problem for men.
Mares, however, has experience not only with diving suits but in these matters. It makes bathing costumes for competition swimmers and these are designed to offer a maximum coefficient of water penetration, are extremely elastic, hug snugly without compression (of those bits of the body liable to compression), and dry almost instantly.
On the right person, they look very fetching, too! Trust the Italians to get this right.
These swimsuits are available in a variety of sizes and materials, from Lycra at £22, in a range of gorgeous colours, to a version in 0.5mm neoprene (only in black and white) at £30. There is a range of sizes from S to XXL, and Mares also makes equivalent men's trunks.

Blandford Sub-Aqua 01923 801572

PLUS	MINUS
+ Comfortable fit + Looks good + Dries fast	- None

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Appeared in DIVER - April 2000

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